The Emergency Council meeting was absolute chaos. It was worse than the first couple of meetings after the attack. Everyone tried to talk at once, people kept bursting in, a couple of people found increasingly obscure ways to call me a liar about things that they could have checked by simply getting off their arses and going for a look.

Once things had calmed down enough to work out what people were saying it became clear that for the first time ‘Team Leave’ outnumbered ‘Team Citadel’. Unfortunately, ‘team leave’ couldn’t make up their minds if they wanted to leave for the ghost town or the train.

It further didn’t help that we didn’t know yet if the train would even work. A team from the guild of Navigators and another team from the guild of Artificers were crawling all over it while a couple of the Arcane Scholars from the University scanned it. The last information we had from them was that it would be another day before they knew for sure if the train would ever run again and longer than that before they were sure they could make that happen in any kind of a reasonable timescale.

But there we were, arguing about it. We might as well have been arguing about numbers of angels dancing on the heads of an unknown number of pins. I found myself zoning out. Nobody was listening to me and the discussion was pointless and it was only a matter of time before…

“Enough!” Gertrude was the one that finally snapped. “I motion that we table this discussion until we have concrete information about the state of the train and the conditions of the town.”

While several of the more argumentative council members were stunned into silence by her audacity the Mayor took advantage of the very brief silence. “All those in favour say aye”

There was a chorus of ayes from people on all sides of the argument. It looked like most of us were just sick of the shouting rather than being in favour of any particular solution.

“Motion carried,” said the Mayor with a smug grin. “Now to the final item on the agenda. Food supplies.”

That meant it was my turn to speak, again. I didn’t have much to say and it was annoying that I had to give these reports at every meeting when very little changed between meetings but it was only fair that the council kept an eye on it.

I cleared my throat and stood up. “We can’t make any firm predictions about how either the train plan or the town plan would affect rationing until we have more information. However if everyone chooses to remain on the Citadel we have enough supplies to continue with our present rations for at least another month. If no other changes to our population or living arrangements take place then I do not recommend changing our ration plan and I recommend that we look at it again in another two weeks.”

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“I motion that we return to this discussion in two weeks time,” said Amris, before anyone could ask any questions or object to my lack of detailed Town and Train plans.

The motion was carried and Amris, Gertrude and I left the Council Room before anyone could drag us into any further discussion.

###

After the meeting Gertrude insisted that Amris and I join her for a quiet chat. I was dubious that there was anywhere on the Citadel that we could have that chat without being overheard by someone, and Gertrude seemed reluctant to leave the Citadel. Amris suggested the roof of the Council building by the clock tower since all the folks practising parkour and climbing had decamped to the town.

Gertrude brought a blanket for us to sit on, Amris brought a tea set and some tea from his personal stash and I brought some apples that I’d found in one of the ruined gardens in town.

We sat together on the one flat bit of the roof looking out over the town and the plateau that it sat on.

“So what’s up?” I said as soon as Gertrude had sat down and taken a sip of her tea.

“Is it that obvious?” said Gertrude.

“Only to people who know you,” said Amris.

“It’s a good thing I’ve got that haughty elf bitch thing going for me then,” said Gertrude. She took another sip before going on, “We think we’ve almost succeeded in deciphering what the Citadel is going to do next.”

“That’s possible?” Amris said, looking as close to shocked as I’d ever seen him look.

“After all the work the Mayor did to convince people that we had no way of knowing or controlling?” I said.

“Yes, and yes,” said Gertrude. “It’s still theoretical and secret. I definitely shouldn’t be telling you about this. There’s been no agreement to release anything. The rest of the team are treating it like a theoretical exercise and refusing to consider the consequences if we’re right. It’s only Osred and I that seem able to see it.”

“Is this going to be something complicated and arcane and intimately tied to the nature of the source?” I said.

“Obviously,” said Gertrude, frowning at me.

“Then feel free to skip to the end,” I said. Belatedly I looked to Amris for confirmation. “Unless you’re desperate to know more about it?”

“I also lack both the education and inclination to make sense of any detailed explanation,” said Amris.

“We were working on a theory that the Citadel was responding to tides and currents in the source winds. We found an underlying pattern in the winds. That pattern suggested that the Citadel would come to a location in this area and then stop for several days. I can’t tell you what the next prediction is. If you showed any sign that you knew I’d be out on my ear, but if we’re right it’s going to lead to a huge shift in the arguments in the Emergency Council. I think that a lot of people are going to want to leave the Citadel. I suggest you prepare accordingly.”

We finished our tea and ate our apples and gazed at the beautiful view and I wondered if perhaps I should have asked for the full explanation of what Gertrude and her team of magical boffins had been doing. But perhaps not. I already had a lot of thinking to do. I probably didn’t have the brain space for anything else.